DEA 1500 Lecture Prelim 1 Notes PDF

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Dr. Gary Evans' class. I was a TA for this class so I have very good notes and all the details! ...

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DEA 1500: Intro to Human-Environmental Relations

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Biological factors

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Social environment

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Physical environment – human welfare and HER Processes

Understanding the forces on human behavior. Human Ecology is interdisciplinary. 

What is the role of the physical environment on human health, well-being, and behavior?  arrow goes in both directions (constant theme)

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Examples : 

99% of our species have lived indoors

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raising a cat in a vertical environment – distorted stimulation levels (blind to the horizontal environment) – cells that fire only to vertical stimuli – effect on brain development

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different amounts of neurotransmitters

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most per capita energy use per country

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People living in mountains healthier than those in the lowlands o

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Bad air- malaria – actually parasite

Plasticity and Critical Period 

Critical/sensitive period – the window of time in which we are malleable

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Some aspects of human responses are plastic and malleable with respect to environmental influences.

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The degree of plasticity varies as a function of particular time periods during development. These critical periods may differ across species and often vary with different environmental dimensions. Ex: cats critical period 6 weeks

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What happens to a cat, which during its critical period, has sunglasses with one lens horizontal

and the other vertical? 

Can see both vertical and horizontal, however has very bad binocular vision (interconnected vision and coordination between the two eyes)

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Cornell Kitchen Triangle

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Designing a kitchen with maximum productivity o

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Most efficient in a triangular shape at a certain angle and size

Deterministic- no symbolism- cats

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**Cognitive Appraisal: Human reactions to the environment are influenced by the meaning

and symbolism of the object or setting. 

Maya Lin Memorial of Civil Rights

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People place meaning onto things – symbolism is front and center

Individual differences in culture, gender, ethnicity, personality, or experience can profoundly alter human responses to a particular environment because they alter cognitive appraisal. **Environmental Determinism 

The physical environment has a direct effect on human health/behavior

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Not modified by what we think, our culture, religion, etc.

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Individuals reactions are not influenced by what people think about the environment. The meaning or symbolism of the environment does not affect human responses.

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Behavioral Toxicology- effects of lead exposure on first grade children IQ

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Designer Rankings versus Layperson Rankings- trying to understand how people are going to

respond to and like/dislike different environments

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Cognitive Appraisal and Dual Heritage: 

“Man has no nature, what he has is HISTORY.” – Ortega Gasset o

wrong- man does indeed have nature, they have biology, and history too

o

HUMAN EVOLUTION HAS A DUALITY = DUAL HERITAGE 

Biological (DNA)

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Sociocultural (Information and Knowledge) – from popular media, family, culture, region, etc.

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 Environmental Determinism and Cognitive Appraisal

Manifest- Latent Function: Anything in the environment, physical or social, has these. 

Manifest: identified properties, purpose, objective function, explicit meaning

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Latent: symbolic, sociocultural meanings, values, implicit meaning o o

Ex: of a home would be homeyness (not just a structure)

HER PROCESS I : “HOMEYNESS”

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HOME - with the physical environment being homes or residential spaces 

Manifest Functions o

Shelter  igloo- the roundness is not symbolic, it cuts down wind chill, enter below and come up because heat rises – all functional purposes 

above the ground in tropics – avoid bugs, increase air circulation, avoid flooding

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Defense  Protection from enemies or rough outside environment (aggression, crime, pollution)

o

Child Rearing  A place to raise children, educate, teach values

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Rest & Sleep  Residential dorms on university campuses are often bereft of homeyness because they are purely institutional and manifest, the designers didn’t take into account of dual heritage

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Intimacy

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Eating and Sharing Meals

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Work

Latent Functions: HOMEYNESS – 1st HER Process o

**House vs. Home

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Diminutive: small and enclosed spaces, importance of scale

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Certain degree of chaos, variety, and lack of uniformity 

U-shaped function  perfect balance, not too chaotic but not too neat or sterile

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Embracing: enter into the residential setting and there is a transition from public to private

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Engaging: feeling welcomed (subtle or not) 

Signage, artifacts, design elements that communicate welcome

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Ex: schools – children are invited in from one space to another through the use of windows, etc.

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Mnemonic: memory-aiding, reminders to the resident themselves and to visitors about the past 

Putting posters on the walls, photographs, family, decorations in your dorm in order to connect to the past culture and whatever your passionate about

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Displaying yourself is critical – personalization = friendliness

Aesthetic: some components of aesthetic are culturally shared 

Probably the most controversial element

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Designing and formulating principles of beauty 

stone, wood, and green (and earthy tones)

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Natural light and specific window panes

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Incandescent light is largely preferred over flourescent

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Fireplace/hearth

Cultural Elements  Religion – architecture and the placement of architecture 

Ex: Mezuza, being kosher

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Icons and artifacts

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Dietary practices – thinking about God when your eating 

Kosher; separation of meat and dairy kitchens

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Design of a church- shape of a cross

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Muslims always face Mecca when they pray - placement

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Gender

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Muslim women are not supposed to be seen by people outside their family – beliefs, tradition, sexuality, sacred – covering your body when in public 

Design an inner courtyard where women do not have to be 24/7 vigilant about covering themselves – safe space where they are with their family

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Shaker Homes 

Celibacy – separation of men and women o

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Matriarchal Native American Residence 

Women cook, but are also the bosses o

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Seating against the walls, two doors, etc.

Conference room is the kitchen– large/central

Ethnicity 

White, Puerto Rican, African American preferences

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Placement of the living room 

Semi-private space, PR is more private in African and White (means that a threshold has been crossed, welcoming into the family)

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Bedrooms are sometimes preferred to be in a deeper, more private part of the house (separation of public and private)

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Placement of kitchen 

PR- keeping an eye on children (monitoring)

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White is overall more open and less structured

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Blacks- more separated (hierarchy from slavery, cooking with very strong odors away from the bedroom)

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Akwekon- “all of us”- residential building 

Symbolism, function, and structure intertwined 

Subjectivity and individual difference

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Not necessarily deterministic

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Circularity – life is a cycle, there is no beginning and end

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Post and beam construction exposed- reminder of a longhouse (indigenous architecture)

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Design on outside of house – wompum belts which has a symbolism (2 colors – one that goes all the way through and one that surrounds) 

Knowing who you are and where you come from (purple runs throughout, in your blood), but being successful by acknowledging outside people (white)

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Foundation and common collective identity

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Domes- all of us, encompassing universality

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Emphasis on detail

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Resources put into community spaces

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User-Designer Gap User-Designer Gap 

Must be a two-way arrow between the builder and the building occupants o

No problem of gaps because designer, builder, and user were the same

o

Most of manifest and latent functions will be there when the people who will be living in the house also design and build it

o

Even in beginning of architecture- the only people who were architects were rich, white males and the only people who can afford them were rich, white males

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Vernacular architecture- designers designing for the common person o

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Increased potential to have this gap

Ex: Brazilia o

Social engineering- moved the capital to the center of Brazil to make a third important city

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Most of the social life is on the street in LA, but Brazilia has a total lack of street life because the designer had no idea of the culture  latent gap

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If people fail to fill the gap, there can be problems. There needs to be more checks and balances (doesn’t necessarily have to be high tech or expensive). o

Incongruence, bad human-environmental fit

o

Can be a manifest or latent gap 

Manifest examples: doorknob too high for children, right-handed desks, kiddie toilets

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Can be even linked back to evolution, social and biological.

Can create problems for the user and makes it challenging for the designer. 

Much more complicated then people realize

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HER PROCESS II- PERSONAL SPACE 

Contact and non-contact species (pigs and penguins/humans, respectively)

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**Learn something about the nature and communication of social relationships by observing spatial behavior.

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Series of interpersonal distances that human beings are important to maintain. o

Intimate (0.5-1.5 ft)

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Personal (1.5-4 ft)

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Social (4-12 ft)

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Public (12+ ft)

We can pick up on when people are at a strange or uncomfortable interpersonal distance. o

Violation of personal space – experience discomfort

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Use space to control or power somebody- drill sergeant in military

What influences comfortability? o

Gender – two males or two females will tend to be farther apart than a male and a female 

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May have to do with sexuality or homophobia

Culture

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Close and far contact cultures

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Some have smaller personal space zones

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Middle East and far east Asia- closer

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When people of different cultures get together, there is potential for miscommunication. 

Training in appropriate interaction distances in military

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Nature of the relationship

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Age  

Younger- closer interactions (smaller bubble) Older- want more distance upon puberty around 6 th grade, start to adopt adult spatial norms

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Elderly- people will approach elderly with smaller zone, but the elderly have an adult spatial norm (you may be getting closer than they want you to be)

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PERSONAL SPACE- HER PROCESS II CTD. - Incarcerated men- Is there a relationship between the crime they committed and their spatial behavior? 

Those who committed nonviolent crimes had a smaller bubble than those who had committed a violent crime

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- People who are anxious and worry a lot have bigger zones 

Like to keep people a little farther away, and get bothered when somebody gets closer to them

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- Introverts (smaller bubble) vs. Extroverts (bigger bubble) – matches intuition

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- Psychotic people – both smaller bubble and larger bubble because they have a more variable

personal space and experience breaks with reality 

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- Partitions: placement of barriers and screens between people 

people will tolerate slightly closer interpersonal contact if there is a screen

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feeling of protection?

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Stressful when people are too close- sensory overload?

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More people will drink from water fountain if it is screened than not

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When there are no boundaries- people make the space themselves (ex: sitting every other seat)

- Height: more controlled, secure, and even territorial at higher elevations 

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tolerate closer interactions and bubble will get smaller

- Crowding: ironically, when there are more people close to you, your bubble gets bigger 

less tolerant of close interactions because of the high density

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stress and sensory overload/out of control – probably negative

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Theoretical Comments 

Stress: stressful when somebody is too close

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Informational or sensory overload

Equilibrium Theory : Intimacy Regulation o

When you interact with somebody, you have some relationship with them (from stranger to lover), you are constantly trying to achieve a balance or equilibrium in the level of intimacy you have with that person

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Dynamic 

Eye contact and kissing

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Physical distance- if you want more, you come closer… if you want less, you distance yourself and go farther away

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Change body axis or posture/body language

HER PROCESS III- TERRITORIALITY 

Only territorial behavior if there is defense, aggression, violence? o

If someone invades yes, but more so applicable to animals than humans

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Connection between wars and fighting over territory

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More complicated for humans and primates- spaces tend to hold us together as opposed to repel us from each other – doesn’t necessarily keep people out

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Holds organisms together at the group level  commonality (physically, psychologically, and even socially)

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Resources: When resources are scarce, territories get bigger. When resources are abundant, territories get smaller because you have sufficient already. o

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Functions as a resource base

Identity o

“the need to define who you are by the place in which you live”

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personality and identity that has a placed-based link  place attachment

Organization: helps us to organize our lives and create order by place-specific behaviors that we regulate (do certain things in certain places w certain people)

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**Humans have 3 different kinds of territories- Irvin Altman

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Personal/Primary – womb, house, small set of people who own, control, and defend it because it is personal

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Group/Secondary – subset of qualified users that are encouraged specifically to occupy a territory (ex: a lounge in a dorm or sorority house), doesn’t belong to one individual 

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Not completely public but also not completely private

Public/Tertiary- don’t belong to anybody but we can temporarily take them over and occupy it for a certain amount of time (chairs in a lecture hall, hotel rooms, libraries)

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Human Research 

Social regulation o

If you are in a group situation, if you work out your territory, you are happier. (no ambiguity into what belongs to who) 

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Increases harmony and reduces aggression

Link with Dominance- Home Court Advantage 

“not in my house”: playing in your own territory and you will win more

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for animals, the higher you are in the pecking order (most dominant animal), the larger the territory

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for humans, the alpha male or female will have the best territory, not necessarily the largest

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Marking Behavior o

Human beings mark their territory visually

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Artwork, photos, murals for group territory/street art

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Links to control, regulation, and defense

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Instability in gangs- marking behavior goes up, and they might tag another one’s artwork

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People with more signs and displays of territoriality are quicker to answer the door to strangers 

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Those who mark their territories- more vigilant about them

Personalization of our homes and bedrooms 

Is there a link with personalization and grades in college?

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Freshman who put more things from their past and their families/high schools on the walls had lower GPAs – reflected inability for a more difficult transition from where they came from to present

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Institutional setting (ex: hospital) 

Sterile, not residential, not homelike 

Cut through this with personalization, photos, natural lighting, etc.

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Cultural Variation o

Different manifestations of territoriality (personal, group, or public) mostly group

o

Illustration of traditional Chinese architecture 

Front yard is for the group, inner yard is for the personal space and the family specifically – very clear hierarchy

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Historically, women would not go out the front gate

Connection between territoriality and dominance 

Alpha animal – home court advantage 

Feel more dominant, more in control, can assert your control better in a space that you feel like you “own”, “not in my house” 

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Ex: win more card games whe...